Today we're delighted to feature the lovely Summer wedding of Cathy and Matthew. These college sweethearts celebrated with a shabby chic, french country inspired wedding, incorporating lots of the elements that are synonymous with vintage weddings, but in fact are inspired, as Cathy was, by the country style of Provence - soft summer colours and pretty unstructured florals, mismatched wood frames and pretty lace. A feast for the romantics by Darek Novak

As mentioned Cathy and Matthew started their romance way back in the day... "Matthew and I met Freshers Week of our first year in University. We ended up being in the same class in Trinity and got together at our first faculty ball... on Matthew’s home turf in Belfast."

Having just returned to work in Edinburgh after a fantastic trip to New Zealand, I was about to finish up for the week - when I noticed that an extra patient had been squeezed into my appointment book... most inconveniently! I reluctantly went to the waiting room only to find that the supposed patient was Matthew with a ring and flowers! It was embarrassing to say the least, but he managed to surprise me - a very difficult task. I was whisked off to London for the weekend to find the perfect ring. Matt had taken an extra week off work post-New Zealand (unplanned, or so he insisted) - and when I heard that he had made a round trip to Sligo that week to ask my Dad's permission - I was seriously impressed. The proposal was just perfect!

Moss green and purples along with a vintage French theme inspired by the colours associated with Provence. Cathy spent a lot of time in the South of France during her teens and the beautiful colours of that region have stayed with her, the lavender purples and soft greens of the f

My sister, when making the invites, painted a floral watercolor with our colors of purples and greens and I suppose this dictated our color scheme.I wanted to capture some of the vintage charm of the 1920’s and lastly I have always been absolutely blown away by my grandmother's wedding pictures, especially her beautiful shower bouquet and wanted to try re-create the simple elegance of her wedding day and luckily our florist Cara did that perfectly.

And from the church to the reception at Markree Castle...

"Both of us agree that those few minutes we spent together travelling from the church to the reception were very special. It was our first time alone together, it gave is time to reflect and escape the madness whilst sipping champagne and enjoying each others company. Our first dance was also one of my highlghts of the day."

At Markree Castle, Cathy explained the draw... "The grounds are stunning and the staff couldn’t have been more attentive and helpful. I always wanted to get married close to home and we both felt that Markree Castle showcased the best of what Sligo has to offer."

While the guests mixed and mingled, and enjoyed the couple's french-themed lawn games, including croquet and boules, and some special whiskies Cathy explained: "On a recent trip to the north Highlands we discovered a Clynelish whiskey and as Matthew’s family hail from Bushmills in North County Antrim, we decided to make these “familial” whiskeys a feature of our drinks reception, I have to say they both went down very well! Cathy and Matthew ventured into the gardens and woodland of Markree with Darek Novak...

"Our centrepieces on each table were just simply vases of our garden flowers - they created a real shabby chic feel complementing table plan. A family friend from France made us traditional iced almond favors. My mum made 160 pots of various summer jams also as favors.

Having handmade their watercolour invitations, and sent them back from Australia, Cathy's sister Eliz had set the standard for all of the wedding stationery, and then came home to ensure the job was done right "thankfully she was home the week leading up to the wedding to help co-ordinate the order of service, place names and table plan and we managed to maintain our purple and green floral theme throughout. She did an amazing job." She incorporated the shabby chic french country theme into the table plan by using mismatching distressed white painted frames in a variety of shapes and sizes.

What advice would you give to brides and grooms planning their day? "We both thoroughly enjoyed the preparatory process and although it has been said before I strongly believe you should delegate jobs as much as possible. We were planning a wedding from Edinburgh in Sligo and I don’t think that this would be possible without family and friends spreading the load. We also sat down and decided what we wanted from our day and I feel that that was integral to our planning - the day flies by... just relax and enjoy every moment."

So there you have it - told you, a feast for the romantics among you. Huge Congratulations to Cathy and Matthew and of course a big Thank You to Darek Novak for sharing his work with us - if you like what you see you'll love having a goo over on photosligo.com